Conference Speakers
Plenery Speakers
Prof. Axel Kaehne
Professor of Health Services Research
Medical School
Edge Hill University
United Kingdom
Axel was born in Berlin/Germany and educated at Free University and Humboldt University. He subsequently studied at Aberdeen University and the University of Wales. He settled in South Wales in 1996 and currently lives in Liverpool. Axel is Professor of Health Service Research at Edge Hill University Medical School, Director of the Evaluation and Policy Analysis unit (EPA) and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Integrated Care and the Journal of Health Organization and Management. Axel is also Visiting Professor at the Department of Health and Social Management at the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio. He is member of the Advisory Panel of the Leadership Observatory NHS England and appointed Governor of the Wrightingon, Wigan and Leigh NHS Hospital Foundation Trust.
Research Interests
Axel has designed and delivered evaluations of health improvement programmes in England and Wales and has worked on projects commissioned by NHS England, the Health Research Authority (HRA) and regional health care providers.
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Axel has an interest in programme evaluations, evaluation methodologies and quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. Leading on from his work in intellectual disabilities, he has developed a research focus on multiagency work, service integration and partnerships in health services for patients with complex health care needs. More recently he has written on complexity and complex adaptive systems as evaluative frameworks to assess health service programmes and patient outcomes.
He is Director of the Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit at Edge Hill University.
Teaching
Post-Graduate Supervision and Teaching
Axel is teaching Research Methodologies, Quantitative Approaches and Statistics/SPSS on the MCh and MRes course of the Medical School and supervises currently three PhD students and several Master’s students.
Axel is leading a module in Strategic Clinical Leadership and leads the dissertation module for more than 65 students per cohort in the Masters in Surgery/ Masters in Medicine degree.
Dr. Sivaneswaran Poobalasingam
Dr. Siva Poobalasingam was appointed as the Lifestyle Medicine Expert Consultant with the World Health Organization for the Lifestyle Medicine For Diabetes Remission Project (WHO-MOH). This pilot project was implemented at a public primary health care facility in Negeri Sembilan in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Dr. Siva developed the module curated to the Malaysian population and trained and upskilled the healthcare professionals involved in the project. The success of this project positioned Malaysia as possibly the first country in the world to implement Lifestyle Medicine in a public primary healthcare facility and led to the establishment of a Lifestyle Medicine clinic at the public primary healthcare facility. Dr. Siva was invited to present the Lifestyle Medicine For Remission of Diabetes at the C20 Integrative Holistic Health Summit.
Dr. Siva is the Founder and President of the Malaysian Society of Lifestyle Medicine and the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance. He is also on the Advisory Board of the International Journal for Disease Reversal and Prevention and is a member of the C20 Working Group for Integrated Holistic Health (NCDS). Dr. Siva also sits on the US-based True Health Initiative Council, the Global Positive Health Institute’s Advisory Council and the National Coalition for Mental Wellness in Malaysia. He is an Exam Question Writer for the Lifestyle Medicine Board Certification examination.
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Professor David Whitford
Professor David Whitford graduated in medicine from Cambridge and Newcastle
Universities in the UK. Following vocational training in general practice, he practiced
as a Family Physician for 16 years in Newcastle upon Tyne, establishing a practice at
the forefront of quality medical care in the UK. He was awarded Fellowship of the
Royal College of General Practitioners in 1996, and a Doctorate from Cambridge
University in 2003.
Over the course of his career, Professor Whitford has demonstrated extensive
leadership experience in both clinical and academic spheres. His emphasis has been
on service towards disadvantaged communities and quality of delivery of medical
care. Following his Doctorate, Professor Whitford took up a post in academic general
practice in RCSI, Dublin in 2003. He moved to Bahrain in 2006 where he established
the community-based teaching in RCSI Bahrain as Foundation Professor of General
Practice. He was later appointed Head of the School of Postgraduate Studies and
Research in RCSI Bahrain. He has over 60 research publications in international peer
reviewed journals. His main research interests are in Type 2 diabetes and the impact
of socio-economic deprivation on health. He returned to RCSI, Dublin as Professor of
General Practice in 2015
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Professor Whitford moves to the University of Cyberjaya having served in Penang
Medical College (RUMC) as Vice President (Academic Affairs) from April 2017
and more recently President of RUMC from August 2019.
“It is a privilege and an honour to be able to take up the post of Vice Chancellor and
Chief Executive of the University of Cyberjaya at this time in its history with nearly
20 years of strong and steady growth” said Professor Whitford. “I am excited at the
opportunity to further advance the University of Cyberjaya in the next chapter of its
development. My life’s emphasis has been to serve and inspire individuals and
communities in order that they may reach their full potential. As such, I will be
focussed on developing faculty and staff teamworking to ensure that the University,
staff and students are fully equipped for the future.”
Ms. Shannon Kobran
Head of Education and Training
SDG Academy
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Shannon has been with the SDG Academy since 2018, when she joined as an Education Manager in SDSN’s New York office. In 2021, she moved to Malaysia to establish an SDG Academy team in Kuala Lumpur. Prior to joining SDSN, Shannon worked for a NYC-based nonprofit that promotes global citizenship through cultural exchange between international students and local communities. She has also worked with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), evaluating and revising the pilot of UNDP’s award-winning Leadership Development Pathway, an online training program aimed at improving the performance of UNDP managers worldwide. Before transitioning to the international development space, Shannon spent five years as an editor and project manager for a leading educational publishing house. She holds a Master’s degree in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University, where her research focused on the intersection of technology and intercultural education. Shannon traces her interest in international education to the formative year she spent in the U.K. and the international connections she forged while completing her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, USA.
Assoc. Prof. CHIA Sin Eng
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ade Susana
Dr. Pahurat Kongmuang Taisuwan
Dr. Pahurat Kongmuang Taisuwan has over 32 years of public health experience within Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health, mainly at the Department of Disease Control. Since 2001, her work has focused on infectious disease outbreak response, crisis communication, and health policy. She earned her Ph.D. in Medical and Public Health Social Sciences from Mahidol University in 2011, after which she joined the Bureau of Risk Communication, developing protocols and training programs for diseases including MERS, SARS, avian influenza, DHF, Zika, Ebola, and COVID-19.
Currently, she serves as the Director of the Secretariat Office of the Royal Development Projects Committee under the same department, managing health initiatives for vulnerable populations. She also teaches risk communication at Mahidol and Thammasat Universities and collaborates with regional and international organizations such as WHO and USAID. Her expertise in outbreak response, health literacy, and policy makes her a valuable asset in public health advisory efforts.
Prof. Dr. Nurpudji A Taslim, MD, MPH, SPGK (K), FRSPH
Professor Nurpudji is a lectures at Nutrition Department School of Medicine Universitas Hasanuddin or Hasanuddin University (UNHAS) Makassar and as a Clinical Nutritional Physician Specialist at Hasanuddin and Wahidin hospital. Currently, she is a Chairwomen of commision 2 for Research and Community services Academic Senat UNHAS and Chairperson of Indonesia Clinical Nutrition Physician Society (PDGKI).
She was graduate for MD and PhD degree at Universitas Hasanudin, her MPH Nutrition at School of Public health University of North Carolina at Chapell Hill, USA in 1994. She has many intellectual property award related food and nutrition and outstanding performance as a researches. She presented her research as a speaker Nasional and International on Nutrition and diseases. She engaged in Covid 19 as a team Covid 19 task force in Indonesia and published Guideline Nutrition for people with Covid 19.
Dr. Atsuro Tsutsumi
World Health Organization Reginal Office for Western Pacific (WPRO), Manila, Philippines
Dr Atsuro Tsutsumi is the Coordinator (Regional Advisor) for Mental Health and Substance Use at the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO). He leads regional efforts to strengthen mental health systems, promote multisectoral suicide prevention, and expand access to quality, evidence-based services. His work focuses on integrating mental health into primary health care, advancing mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies, and fostering collaboration with governments, academia, and civil society.
Before joining WHO, Dr Tsutsumi served as a Full Professor at Kanazawa University, Japan, and spent three years in China as an expert with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and has over two decades of experience advancing global mental health, human rights, and equitable access to care.
Prof. Jong-Tae Lee
Jong-Tae Lee is a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Korea University, where he conducts research on the health effects of environmental exposures such as air pollution, temperature, and related stressors. He has an extensive publication record spanning epidemiologic studies on air quality, climate impacts, and public health outcomes, contributing to both national and international research projects. Dr. Lee earned his Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his work has included participation in the Global Burden of Disease Project as an expert on air pollution in Eastern Asia. His research interests focus on understanding how environmental stressors influence population health and informing evidence-based public health policy
Symposium Speakers
Prof. Fredolin Tangang
Emeritus Professor Fredolin Tangang is a climatologist whose research focuses on climate change, climate variability, and climate modelling. He served as Professor at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) until his retirement in 2023, and joined Universiti Brunei Darussalam in 2024. He currently also holds the title of Emeritus Professor at UKM. He has been a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia since 2011 and served as Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I for the Fifth Assessment Report. Over the past decade, he has been actively engaged in regional climate downscaling through the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), a programme under the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Team (SAT) of CORDEX from 2015 to 2024 and is the founding coordinator of CORDEX Southeast Asia, which he led from 2013 to 2023. He obtained his PhD from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, in 1997. Throughout his academic career, he has published more than 145 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Prof. Hasanain Ghazi
• Bachelor of medicine and surgery (University of Baghdad)
• Master’s & PhD in Community Health from the National University of Malaysia
(UKM)
• Fellow of the American College of Nutrition
• Fellowship of United Nations University – International Institute for Global Health
• Best Researcher for two consecutive years at Management and Science University,
Malaysia (2016,2017)
• Best Researcher for two consecutive years at Al-Bayan University (2021,2022)
• Recipient of Al-Bayan Awards for Excellence in Research and Publication (2024) in 3
categories (Citations, H index, Journals with cite score >5)
• Published more than 142 articles in Peer-reviewed journals
• 81 articles in SCOPUS-indexed journals
• More than 2200 citations for published articles & H index (23), i10 index (57)
• Editor in Chief of Global Journal of Public Health Medicine
• Academic editor in BMC Public Health & PLOS Global Public Health
• Verified reviewer in many Scopus & WOS journals
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• Worked as a senior lecturer at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) (2013-2015)
• Worked as an Associate Professor at Management and Science University (2016-2020)
• Worked as Vice President for Scientific Affairs at Al-Bayan University (2022-2023)
• Founder of the Research and Publication Platform, 2017
• I am currently the Deputy Dean for scientific affairs at the College of Nursing at AlBayan University in Baghdad, Iraq
Prof. Jamal Hisham Hashim
Prof. Krishna Rampal
Professor Dr Krishna Gopal Rampal is a distinguished academic and healthcare professional with more than four decades of service in public health and occupational health. He retired in August 2025 after more than eight years as Professor of Community and Occupational Medicine at the University of Cyberjaya. This concluded 49 years of professional experience, including 43 in academia. His career began with serving Malaysia’s Ministry of Health (1976–1980) followed by serving in the Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) for 28 years (1982-2010). He later joined Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine (PUGSOM) in 2011, serving as Dean from 2014 to 2016.
Prof Rampal holds an MBBS from Agra University, a Master of Public Health from Mahidol University, and both a Master of Public Health and PhD from Johns Hopkins University.
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His national honours include the National Leadership Award (Tokoh) in Occupational Safety and Health (2004), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Malaysia (2019), and the Outstanding Public and Healthcare Services Award from the Malaysian Medical Association (2023). Internationally, he was the first Malaysian elected Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (Ireland, 1995), the only Malaysian Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (UK, 1996), and a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, Italy (2012).
Beyond academia, Prof Rampal continues to serve as Advisor to the Journal of Occupational Safety and Health (JOSH), Chairman of the NIOSH Research Ethics Committee, and Chairman of the Examination Board, Academy of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Malaysia. An art enthusiast, he also served on the Board of Trustees of the National Art Gallery Malaysia (1998–2004).
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nimetcan Mehmet Orhun
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nimetcan Mehmet Orhun is a public health scholar with extensive experience in global and community health research and education. He earned his undergraduate degree in Law from Xinjiang University, followed by a Master’s degree in Community Health at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). He completed his Ph.D. in Community Health jointly at the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, and the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH).
Dr. Orhun served as a Research Assistant (2009–2013) and Postdoctoral Researcher (2013–2015) at UNU-IIGH. He then worked as an Assistant Professor (2015–2017) at Necmettin Erbakan University, Türkiye. Since 2017, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU), where he currently serves as an Associate Professor.
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He has authored more than 80 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and contributed to several books and book chapters. Dr. Orhun has presented numerous papers at international conferences and has taken active roles as an organizing committee member in both national and international scientific meetings. He has also chaired and organized symposiums and has been invited as a speaker at several international conferences.
He currently serves as the Director of the Higher Education Committee of the Uyghur Academy, Coordinator of the Health Policy and Global Health Postgraduate Program at the AYBU Institute of Public Health, and a member of the Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee at AYBU. He also serves on the editorial boards of several international health journals.
Dr. Orhun has supervised over 20 postgraduate students in Public Health and Global Health and continues to mentor Master’s and Doctoral candidates. His main research interests include Public Health, Global Health, Health Policy, Health Economics, Health Disparities, and Migration Health.
Dr. Nor Faiza Mohd Tohit
Achieving health equity within the SDG framework requires moving beyond tokenistic
consultation toward genuine community leadership. This presentation examines how
redistributing power to affected populations transforms health outcomes and creates
sustainable change.
Despite increased policy attention to health equity, implementation gaps persist because solutions continue to be designed for communities rather than with them. Traditional topdown approaches misdiagnose problems, overlook cultural contexts, and impose interventions that communities neither want nor sustain. Evidence demonstrates that community-led initiatives achieve superior health outcomes, ensure cultural appropriateness, and build local capacity that outlasts external funding.
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This session illustrates how communities holding decision-making power from problem identification through evaluation produces innovations that professionals miss, stronger trust in health systems, and measurable improvements in equity indicators.
The presentation addresses common implementation challenges—time constraints,
institutional resistance, resource allocation—with concrete solutions drawn from diverse global contexts. Ultimately, advancing from policy to action on health equity requires recognizing that those experiencing inequities are not beneficiaries to serve but experts and leaders essential to achieving SDG targets
Prof. Sharifa
Prof. Maththew Ashfold
“Matthew Ashfold is a Professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, where he has been based since 2013. His research interests encompass various aspects of atmospheric and climate science, often in the context of tropical Asia. Current research priorities include the impacts of climate change on air pollution and the co-emission of greenhouse gases and air pollutants.”
Pre Conference Workshop Speakers
Prof. Mohammed Alshawesh
Senior Research Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, Monash University, VIC, Australia
Adjunct Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
E-Mail: mohammed.alshawsh@monash.edu ;
Dr Mohammed is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia, and an Adjunct Professor in Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He is also an Honorary Fellow with the Epi-Genomic Newborn Screening (EpiGNs) program at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Australia. He has extensive experience in systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and evidence synthesis, and is an active member of Cochrane with publications in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Dr Mohammed serves as an Associate Editor for BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies. He has supervised 15 PhD and 6 Master’s students to completion and is currently supervising 3 PhD students. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, holds an h-index of 28, and has delivered over 30 invited and plenary lectures at international conferences. In addition, he has facilitated more than 25 national and international workshops. Dr Mohammed was recognised among the Top 2% of Scientists in Stanford’s Global List for two consecutive years (2024 and 2025).
Dr. Mohd Nor Akmal Khalid
“Mohd Nor Akmal Khalid is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Information Science and Technology and a Center for Artificial Intelligence Technology (CAIT) member at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He conferred his B. Comp. Sc. (Hons), MSc., and Ph.D. degrees from the Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2013, 2015, and 2018, respectively. He was previously employed as an assistant professor (or lecturer) at the School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Nomi, Japan, while also serving as a member of the Research Center for Entertainment Science (2019–2020), and a member of the International Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and Entertainment Science (2022–2023). He is an active program committee for the ASEAN Workshop of Information Science and Technology (AWIST), an IEEE Society member, an associate member of MyAIS Malaysian Chapter, and a professional technologist certified with the Malaysian Board of Technologist (MBOT), and a member of the Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). He is regularly invited as an article referee for Elsevier, IEEE, and several other reputable journals while serving as the guest editor for some of those journals. His expertise lies in artificial intelligence, game informatics, modeling and simulation, and computational optimization.”
Prof. Syed Hatim Noor
Professor Dr. Syed Hatim Noor is a medical doctor by profession. He has been working as a medical lecturer since 1994 at School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health campus, Kelantan then at Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin. He is the current chairman of UniSZA Human Research Ethics Committee (UHREC) (2018-date).
In addition to the basic medical degree, areas of his post-graduate qualifications are in public health, tropical medicine and medical statistics. His core teachings in the post-graduate education include Medical Statistics, Medical Epidemiology, Research Methodology and statistical software application in medical research.
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His major contribution to the universities is in improving post-graduate and academic research
with regard to the standard and appropriateness of research designs and implementation,
application of appropriate statistical methods and publications of scientific papers by postgraduate candidates and academicians. He has developed Master of Science in Medical
Statistics degree program in Malaysia and founded the Unit of Biostatistics and Research
Methodology. He is also the statistical consultant to private and government organizations and
pharmaceutical companies.
He has supervised and graduated more than 100 postgraduate students and examined nearly
100 postgraduate theses as an examiner.
His scientific paper publications to date is a total of 187 articles in Scopus (citation 2171, hindex 24) and 135 articles in Web of Science (citation 1502, h-index 22). He was listed as
world’s top 2% scientist (single year achievement) in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 and career
long achievement in 2023, 2024 and 2025 which were jointly recognized by Elsevier (Scopus),
Netherlands and Standford University, USA. He has been the invited speaker for more than
400 occasions which includes intensive courses, workshops and conferences in and out of the
University, within Malaysia and abroad.